It's Funny, How Things Turn Out to Be --Highschool AU--
by CheckY9urPrivileges
Summary: Peridot has no friends or social connections outside of robotics club, and she'd prefer it stay that way. But when Lapis unexpectedly moves into her dorm, Peridot can't seem to maintain her normal uncaring demeanor. Lapis is different than everyone else, and Peridot must sort through feelings that might even be something more than friendship.
1. Chapter 1

One thing you'd always found funny, is that when you're an active member of the robotics club, spend all your free time studying or nose-deep in your laptop, and wear thick-rimmed glasses several inches too big for your eyes; you don't tend to have many friends. Or really any, in your case.

But the thing about friends, is that you're probably better off without them.

Friends are too much trouble. So high maintenance; with the whole, "always having to be there for them any time any place any reason" thing and besides all that takes away precious time from robotics and school. And then having to always hang out with only them and talk about meaningless occurrences in your lives to pass the time, just seems like a pain to you. Besides, you weren't exactly the most social butterfly.

You could never think of anything to say, and most conversations trail off into awkward silences. You'd just end up stiffly standing there wishing you could walk away, but then they were still there like they're waiting for you to suddenly transform into this incredibly amiable, social person. Obviously that wasn't happening anytime soon.

In all honesty, you couldn't stand talking to people in general. Well, save some of the members of the robotics team, as they were a group of equally anti-social shut-ins.

Outside of that, conversation was entirely loathsome. You hated it. And then the topic of your name always managed to rear its ugly head. Just another reason not to meet new people. "Oh really?" they'd say, in their sing-songy squeaky little voices that make your head want to implode, "Peridot? Like the birthstone?"

You'd given the little shpeel so many times, it'd practically become a scripted response of yes, like the birthstone. And no, you technically aren't a peridot, but your parents thought you were going to be. Yet for some implausible reason, you'd naively decided to enter this world two weeks early. You suppose you can't blame your baby self, though; she didn't know what it was like out here.

Your appearance also liked to worm its way in on the rare occasion you aren't wearing your favorite over-sized green sweater and ratty jeans combo. Apparently, you were what normal people would consider "pretty", or so you'd been told by a handful of obnoxious chatty girls who wouldn't know reality if it hit them with a semi-truck. You'd always marveled at how they'd managed to reach that conclusion, because you're more than a little on the short side (not even reaching a full five feet in height) and didn't pay attention to your appearance most of the time besides.

Most days, you couldn't care less about what you looked like. You don't even waste the effort of brushing your hair in the mornings, and usually just sort of pat down your oddly shaped blonde rat's nest. If you're in a good mood or going to a robotics competition or something, you may take a comb to it. Though your hair usually finds a way to re-tangle itself by the end of the day.

You moved a tentative hand to it, poking down one of the many loose strands. Sighing, you flicked the computer mouse in front of you and watched as robot design plans flashed onto the screen.

You'd been unproductively staring at the little animation the computer played when it went to sleep for the past ten or so minutes, which wasn't the best way to spend your time but honestly, you were kind of done with trying to deal with the design software. The robotics lab had updated the program, and although it was almost exactly the same as the old one; some genius had decided to change all the icon pictures, so it was taking you forever to find everything. You'd kind of given up and zoned out a while ago.

This particular project had been sucking your time away for a few years now, and outside of build season (two hectic months the robotic's club's given to build a bot for this big competition thing) you find yourself working long hours on it.

You've come to call it affectionately a "robonoid", and it's main purpose is to move. That's pretty much all it's supposed to do. Though at the moment, it can't even do that very well.

You're onto your seventh attempt at creating an actual, operational physical model.

Though you think the bot's more than worth the hours upon hours you've spent on it. It's not just moving, but how it's moving that's something worth mentioning on any prestigious college application. You designed it to use electromagnets to support itself on four cylindrical legs, all while keeping it's body essentially free-floating. This results in flawless turns and rotation abilities on the robonoid's part.

You jerked up suddenly as someone lightly tapped your shoulder. "W-what?" you spat, though you sounded more surprised than you did irritated. The person who so rudely interrupted your daydream retracted her hand quickly, wrapping it around a clipboard held tightly to her chest. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you-" Pearl began.

"What is it, what do you want? I'm kinda busy if you hadn't noticed," you interrupted. Pearl's expression hardened immediately at your blunt comment, and she retorted snidely "Yes, of course you are. I just came to check in on you because you haven't seemed to have made any progress in the last hour. Did you get stuck somewhere? Is there any way I can help?"

"No of course not! In fact, I'm so far ahead I think I'm going home early, see?" you said quickly, without thinking. Which was really stupid, because now you had no choice but to leave otherwise Pearl'd definitely say something. Great, that was just perfect. Because despite what you'd said, you actually did have a fair amount of work left.

Reluctantly shutting down your computer, you grabbed your backpack and marched indignantly from the room.

The air outside held the frigid bite of mid-September, and an array of goosebumps settled into place on your knuckles. Wonderful, that was the last thing you needed to think about; the looming threat of cold weather.

You cupped your hand around your mouth at a slight yawn as you began the walk home. You were way too tired for this early in the evening, and definitely not looking forward to the long trek back to the girl's dormitory. It was at the very North of the side, and the farthest building from the robotics lab (just your luck). The building itself was set apart from everything rather nicely though, as it sat on a fairly steep hill that sat above the rest of the campus. It was backed by the thick black metal fence that bordered the school on all sides, and beyond that was the small two-lane road that led to the nearby town.

There was definitely a good amount of distance from the dorm and the rest of the school, so you couldn't really complain. The isolation was nice.

It had once been a unisex dorm; the top half being girls and the lower boys.

But there'd been an "incident" your freshman year that'd made the school separate the two groups, involving a snake escaping into the girls dorms. This unfortunate event had led to the discovery of not only the reptile's quirky owner, but the multitude of hidden cameras he'd placed all around the upper floors under the pretense of "revealing the sneople and their diabolical schemes". No one had believed him obviously, but he got away with a mere detention because most of the cameras were only in hallways or light fixtures. They weren't even well positioned, and all they could see were the array of roaches that'd met their fateful end against the light bulb.

You only knew all this because you'd been called to the principal's office with the weirdo, because you'd happened to be the one to finally step up from the crowd of squealing teenagers and throw the snake out a window. The boy'd given you all kinds of suspicious looks while you were waiting for Principal Dewey.

After that, they'd decided it best to keep the boys and girls separate.

You heaved a sigh of relief as you stepped off the dew-laden grass and onto the thin line of concrete that surrounded the dorm. Your breath was slightly uneven from the ascent, as walking to and from the dorm was about the only exercise you got. The main hall was empty, and you only passed by a couple girls, whispering about something or other, on your way up the stairs to your home on the second floor.

Twisting the knob to your dorm room, you walked inside and slid the door shut behind you. Something felt different about the air of the room, something out of place. You didn't care enough to look into it though, and decided to shrug the feeling off. You'd probably just left the heater on or something unimportant like that.

You yawned again, rubbing your eyes with the back of your sleeve. You normally weren't this tired, especially at this time. Maybe it was the odd early darkness that came with the beginning of fall, or maybe you'd finally reached your breaking point.

You needed to splash some water on your face or something.

You clicked the bathroom door open, and all traces of drowsiness immediately fled from you as the girl inside shrieked, covering her chest hurriedly with both arms. Your mouth went dry, a mix of shock and confusion settling in the back of your throat. Why...was there a strange girl in your bathroom. And why wasn't she wearing clothes.

You hadn't realized you'd set your eyes in her direction during your internal breakdown until she awkwardly grabbed a towel from the side of the shower and wrapped it around her torso; a wild blush flooding her face, framed by locks of wet hair.

How had you not heard the water running.

You didn't say anything, couldn't think of anything to say, just backed out and closed the door. Stiffly turning around, you marched almost robotically to your bed, flopping onto it in a heap.

What had just happened. You couldn't seem to wrap your mind around it. Instead you occupied yourself in studying the various marks and scratches on the wall by your bed. A part of the paint was chipping, and you reached out and tore off a piece. Rolling it between your fingers, you again attempted to comprehend what you'd just walked in on. You'd have to face the girl eventually, and you didn't need to be a spluttering mess when you did. You decided to start with what you knew.

Fact : there was a girl in your bathroom.

Fact : you knew she attended school here. Once you'd been able to think somewhat clearly you could remember seeing her in Chem class. So she wasn't some criminal or stalker or something.

Fact : there were two suitcases and a duffel bag you'd failed to notice stacked neatly on the previously untouched bed across from yours.

And she'd had the key to get in. She had to have gotten that from somewhere. And right now, you were more than very upset with that somewhere.

You'd had an agreement with him: no roommates, ever. Under any circumstances. You'd told him, you'd told him about your personal space issues. As well as the claustrophobia and social anxiety. And if you were triggered by any of these, you were highly prone to anxiety attacks. He'd agreed to let you dorm alone because of that. Yet here you were with another girl, whose stuff lay all over your other bed and who was currently locked in your bathroom.

As if on queue, you heard the water-stained doorknob squeak as the door inched open. The girl walked out hesitantly, this time fully clothed in bright blue pajamas. She made her way into the room slowly, closing the door behind her but keeping a hand on the knob anyway, as if it were a lifeline.

"So, umm..." she trailed off, fidgeting with the top button of her shirt. "Yeah," you responded in your almost cracked but incredibly uncaring voice. You tried to give the word a note of irritation, but you were finding it oddly difficult when your eyes kept wandering to her bright blue pupils. In your brief glimpse you'd gotten earlier (which you were very much trying to forget), you hadn't really looked at them. The seemed to run like a river across her eyes, pooling in the centers which were flecked with sea-foam green. They were the weirdest eyes you'd ever seen, and you were almost certain she was wearing contacts.

"Okay, look," you breathed irritably, "I don't know what your plan is, or what you've been told, but I don't share rooms with people. Ever." You poked your glasses up the bridge of your nose, rising from the bed but not taking any further action.

The girl flinched a bit as you stood, her freckle-flecked face contorting slightly at the sudden movement before being forced to fall into a more relaxed expression. She tucked a stray strand of blue-dyed hair behind her ear.

"Um I, sorry. But, I don't really have anywhere else to go...I hadn't realized you didn't know, or didn't want me here. But Professor Universe said you'd be okay with it..." she trailed off, turning her gaze to the single window in the room, in an attempt to break eye contact.

"Why can't you go back to your own dorm?" you asked stupidly, knowing full well that of course, there was some reason she'd been kicked out. Though you couldn't seem come up with any plausible reason as to why this one single student was suddenly being relocated.

"You haven't heard?" her eyes darted towards you for a moment to give you a puzzled look, "There was some animal, I think it was a raccoon or something, that got trapped in the walls on the upper floors and did all kinds of damage. When they tried to have it removed, they found a bunch of safety hazards in the structural support. No one's allowed up until it's fixed, everyone had to leave. They made us take all our stuff and stand on the grass outside for a couple hours, and no one knew what was going on. Then they told us that we were going to share the dorms with the students down here for a while. I guess the bottom floors are all fine because of all that remodeling they did a few months ago.

You gave an indignant grunt. Why should you care? Whatever problems these people on the upper floors had, they could deal with them themselves. Everyone on the lower floors shouldn't have to get involved. Couldn't they all just sleep in the gym or something? You'd done that once (long story), and it hadn't been that terrible.

But of course, the teachers wouldn't make the students do that. It wouldn't be "fair" or whatever (like overcrowded dorms were much of an improvement).

"Why can't you go somewhere else down here?" you shot nastily. "There's no room," she began in a quiet voice, "Everywhere else is so full they're worried about fire safety. They couldn't figure out where to put me, and Professor Universe said that here would be fine, because your room was kind of-"

"Please, just stop." you interjected blandly, "I can't stand to hear your whiny little mumble for the next half hour as you over-explain something that should only take two sentences." The girl's face fell at this, and her lips twisted slightly in an almost hurt way. You felt kind of bad now for being so blunt. It wasn't her fault she didn't have anywhere else to go, and if it was just some simple repair work it couldn't take more than a couple weeks, right?

"Aaaaugh, I can't believe I'm doing this. Okay, fine. Stay," you groaned unpleasantly.

The girl bobbed her head in a nod, "Thank y-"

"Don't thank me, I'm not doing it because I feel sorry for you. I'm letting you stay because if I don't, I'll have Universe nagging me about regulations and compromises and whatever. So the second they finish that repair work, you're out. And if they don't soon, you'll just have to find somewhere else to stay."

"It's supposed to only take a couple weeks," she nodded again, her shoulders noticeably unwinding with relief at finding a definite place to sleep. She'd been so eager for your "approval" to the point that she was actually stressing out. How annoying.

This girl was so passive you were almost driven to nausea. She seemed exactly like one of those oh-so-sweet and perfect quiet girls who integrated themselves with the noisy, popular groups just to feel like they were a part of things. Those types of people that just follow others their entire lives without having an independent thought the whole time. She didn't get anything above barely average grades in Chemistry either, so she didn't even have intelligence going for her.

"What's your name?" you asked blankly, falling backward onto the quilt spread across the worn mattress you'd had since you were a kid. "It's Lapis. Lapis Lazuli," her voice came from the bed on the other side of the room. It sounded silently forced, as if she wanted to get this whole thing over with as soon as possible and stop talking to you. You could find yourself relating.

"Like the birthstone?" you questioned, holding back a small sense of irony. You could almost feel her bobbing her head, nodding in that almost dizzy way that made it seem as if her skull was going to go flying off her thin neck at any time. "Yeah," she said as if she'd answered the question a million times before.

It was going to be a long two weeks.

* * *

 **[[A/N : I'm operating around the Highschool!AU seen in some of the official episode posters]]**


	2. Chapter 2

The annoying blare of your alarm pierced your brain, reminding you that you had early classes for robotics. You groped around your bedside table, but all you managed to do was knock your green-tinted glasses to the floor; almost doing the same to your lamp.

The alarm wasn't stopping, and the insistent beeping had started rattling around your skull in a rather obnoxious way.

You groggily opened your eyes, slowly sitting up and blinking around in search of the annoying contraption. It turned out that somewhere in the night, you'd managed to knock it into the incredibly small crack between your bed and the table, and you had to fish it out with your Spanish textbook.

Finally slamming your fist on the "off" button with rejoiceful content (so hard you were surprised the button hadn't jammed), you sighed in relief. Your silent celebration was interrupted by a small murmur and the sound of someone rolling over. Your heart raced in a second of confusion, but then you remembered your all-too-unwanted but mandatory "guest".

You turned your gaze in her direction, scowling a bit as you did so. Lapis was sleeping with her back to you, the old comforter you'd found in the back of your closet pulled up almost over her head. She was curled in a tight ball, her blue hair spreading out in every direction across the pillow.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket (you hadn't realized you'd fallen asleep without changing last night), and the bright screen revealed a text from Pearl, a less active member of the club who usually worked with the welding and repair projects, along with keeping the whole place organized (not a screw was out of place. Even if Pearl wasn't there, even if you dropped it in the most inconvenient place, the second you'd turned your back on anything, it'd be magically whisked back into it's proper container.).

The mandatory weekly morning class (it was more of a meeting, really) had started almost half an hour ago, she'd said reprimandingly, and why weren't you there already?

Cursing to yourself at your failure to realize how late it was, you threw your binders into your backpack and ran out the door. Quickly locking the room, you raced down the stairs and out the main door. You would have run the whole way, but it was really cold and wasn't really worth the effort.

Two hours later you found yourself sprinting to second period. The meeting had run way over and you'd completely missed first, and were running late as it was to your second class. You ran through the hall, taking stairs you ran into two steps at a time. Rounding a corner, you suddenly came into contact with something, and was sent flying backwards onto the ground.

You hadn't seen Lapis coming, and had run into her at full speed. Standing up and brushing dust from your pants, you hesitated a second as Lapis slowly climbed to her feet. "Oh hello Peridot," she said, rubbing the back of her head with the palm of her hand.

"Hey," you replied quickly, "I thought it was second period." Your voice was critical, but Lapis seemed unfazed.

"Yeah, but I have study hall. I was on my way to the library actually...where were you going?" she asked with the almost stiff politeness she seemed to coat her every word with. "Oh, right I have to get to class," you said, desperation creeping into your tone. Grabbing your bag from the floor, you ran in the direction of Calculus. Lapis murmured something as you ran off. You couldn't quite hear her, but you thought it could have been a goodbye.

Math was, as usual, horribly boring. It's not like you were bad at it or anything; in fact you were so good that the slow-paced lessons held no interest to you, and hardly taught you anything you didn't already know. You always aced everything and read all the chapters in advance, so you had the top grades in the class. And you were almost never late, so when you slid into your seat at the back of the class the teacher didn't even take the time to give you a second glance.

You were out of the classroom the instant the bell rang, swiftly making your way through the mostly uncrowded hallway so you wouldn't be there when the torrent of students poured from their various classrooms.

You'd almost managed to escape, when someone caught hold of your arm. Flinching, you spun around warily, relaxing to find that it was only Universe.

"There you are Peridot, could you wait a second?" his tone held a seriousness quite rare for him. Normally he was loud and eccentric in his words and actions (one reason he was one of the most popular teachers in the school).

Professor Universe ("'Mr.' seems so formal, and I'd really like it if you all could just call me Steven, but Mr. Dewey says that's too unprofessional. Professor is a lot more interesting and important-sounding than 'Teacher' or 'Mr.' so let's go with that") was technically the vice-principle of the school, but he insisted on teaching so he could "get to know his students better". And since this was a private school, he could do that sort of thing. Universe was always smiling, and kind of odd really, and you didn't really _dis_ like him.

His hair was a mass of black curls and always messy (something you wouldn't expect from a teacher). And though no one knew exactly how old he was, Universe was short enough to be in middle school and had a tendency to act rather childish.

"About Lapis..." he spoke in the way a polite kid would who was trying to avoid hurting someone's feelings, "I know you have problems being around other people, but I wouldn't have asked you to do something that made you so uncomfortable unless the situation was as bad as it was...you know about the problems on the upper floors right? Everything's so overcrowded that most students have to share a room with three or four other people.

"And I think living with Lapis could be good for you! I never see you talking to anyone, and living all by yourself isn't helping that," he concluded, releasing your arm.

You nodded, not really in the mood to try arguing with him (plus you don't think it'd be very easy to get angry at him with that naively innocent expression plastered to his face).

"Yeah, sure," you said, almost as a side remark. He gave you a worried look, but said nothing else as you turned and made your way through the crowded hall.

* * *

Your laptop sat precariously on your lap, the empty word document glaring up at you. You'd been sitting there for the past twenty minutes, willing the computer to magically conjure up an essay. So far, it hadn't been working too well, but you hadn't given up hope yet.

Lapis walked in from the outside hall, standing awkwardly by the door. Her shoulders were slumped forward, and her eyes were dull and bordered by dark circles. "Hello," she said tiredly, but still in an uncomfortable, reserved way. "Hmm," you grumbled in response, finally resolving to finish your essay later and opening a design you'd been working on for the robonoid.

"They," Lapis began, slowly, "They said it should only be a few more days, maybe a week or two at most until people can start moving back upstairs..."

"Yeah, fine as long as you're out of here soon," you said off-handedly, returning your focus to your laptop. Lapis huffed, but didn't say anything else to your blatant response. Sighing, she walked stiffly to the bathroom. You could hear water running behind the closed door, and Lapis muttering to herself. You couldn't hear exactly what she was saying, but she didn't sound overly happy and you're pretty sure you were the reason why.

Oh well. She can be irritated, you were going to act how you wanted. It was your dorm that she was living in, you who she was inconveniencing.

You'd managed to contribute a few meager sentences to your failing attempt at an essay when Lapis stepped out. She took in a sharp breath, pinching the bridge of her nose as she exhaled.

"Look," she said in such a decisive, annoyed tone, you hardly recognized it. Surprised, you looked up at her with your lips parted from slight shock. You hadn't taken her as the assertive type, a drastic change from her normal modest timidity.

"I don't want to be here either, trust me on that. These last few days have been absolutely miserable for me. If I could have gone back or gone somewhere else, I would have and I'm sorry, but I can't. And the more unpleasant you are about all this, the worse it will be for both of us. So can you try to be more positive, maybe?" she said, shifting back to her custom quiet demeanor at the end.

Still, her outburst had caught you off guard. For the most part, you felt annoyed. What right did she have to talk to you like that, when _she_ was the one intruding on _you_? But a small part of you clawed at the back of your mind that felt bad for driving her to be so irritable.

But for the most part, you wanted to snap back at her, to get defensive and angry and let her know she had no right to criticize how you talked to her, but the feeling had torn its way to the back of your throat, blocking any words that might escape.

So you just nodded, her shoulders immediately unwinding as you did so. You hadn't noticed until she'd relaxed, but she had been tense throughout the whole ordeal.

"Thank you," she breathed, barely above a whisper, before turning and sitting neatly on the bed across from yours. "Yeah," you said pathetically.

 _What just happened_. Any traces of remorse you may have felt were swallowed by an angry cloud, reproaching you for letting her get away with mouthing off to you. This was _your_ dorm, and you'd been nice enough to let her stay here thus far. She should be _thankful_ that you'd put up with her this long, not complaining about your attitude. And then you'd just let her go ahead and walk all over you.

You couldn't leave it like this, not when she'd had the last word. You opened your mouth, ready to shout at her and get really pissed and kick her out, but the only thing that passed through your lips was "So, uh, what classes are you taking?"

The look of shock on her face almost matched your own internal one. Where had that come from. Even though you were desperately anti-social, even _you_ knew how awkward the question sounded.

Also, you were never so unsure of yourself; especially never saying filler words like "so" or "uh". You weren't like those annoying people who talked just to hear their own voices, without ever saying anything useful.

"Oh, um..." Crap she's answering. Why'd you ask such a stupid question you dolt, now she's uncomfortable. And what were you going to say when she answered, 'Oh yes okay those sure are classes'?

"You really want to know?" she asked, taking you off guard. You shrugged, "Uh, sure whatever." You turned your head to face your computer screen, carefully watching Lapis from your peripherals in an attempt to recover your nonchalant attitude.

But she was looking out the window again (she seemed to do that a lot), and didn't seem to notice. "Well, there's Algebra, Literature, World History, Chemistry, uh well I guess you know about that one, and what else..." suddenly her face lit up, and it was in such a cute way you had to actually look away as heat rushed to your ears.

"Oh! I have swimming too, you know instead of PE. I really like that, and I'm pretty good at it too. Actually, last year we won state. But then, when we got to nationals..."

She ended up talking nonstop about swimming for a little over an hour, and as much as you would have loved to tune her out, to just put in your earbuds and finish your essay, you ended up listening to every single word.


	3. Chapter 3

Two weeks later and the upper floors still weren't considered "liveable" yet. They'd apparently found a moldy beam, and since all the beams on the upper levels were wooden (and could also potentially get moldy), they had decided to replace everything with iron framing. Which was going to take a while. They didn't say how long when you asked though, just "a while".

Lapis seemed to have warmed up to you a bit more, and you'd discovered that she could be something of a chatterbox if asked the right sort of questions. Horribly enough, most of your questions were the right sort. You'd usually tune her out and only pretend to listen while you messed around on your laptop.

Another week passed, and still nothing. You didn't even think they were working on it anymore. You hadn't seen anyone go up there in days. On the bright side though, you'd managed to complete a mostly operational prototype of the robonoid.

You'd even added a spray nozzle to the front (you'd tried putting a tazer on it, but one of the robotics instructors had caught you and made you take it off, as it was "inappropriate to use school equipment to construct weapons" or something. He'd suggested that it could be used as a mobile fire extinguisher, which was a stupid idea, but he'd given you one of those "do you know how much the materials alone cost to make this thing? If you're going to waste so much of the school's budget, at least make something useful that doesn't just wander around like a deranged circus monkey" looks.).

But when you tried filling the robonoid with the extinguisher in the cafeteria, you'd been told off by the janitor for "misusing safety equipment" and given detention. So it was filled with shaving cream. Close enough, right? It was fluffy and white and smelled horrible, so really it was practically the same thing.

It'd taken you a while to adjust to the controls of the robot though (as you didn't exactly specialize in mechanical programming. Websites and firewalls were more your thing.), so there were way more buttons on the remote than there should have been. Also it wobbled too much when it walked, but it could still reach a pretty decent speed (and at the very least it didn't fall over, unlike previous attempts).

You didn't want to spend the time it took making the final adjustments until midterms were over, so most days you just sat there staring at it, bored out of your mind. You'd tested it hundreds of times over all sorts of surfaces in the lab area (finding out the hard way that it wasn't very good at climbing things, though it did manage slopes pretty well). You supposed you could take it outside, test it on the ground out there.

But then there were all the complications that came with that. If anyone saw the robonoid, they'd be all over it. Touching it with their oily fingers and asking if they could have a go driving it. Somebody would end up breaking something, you just knew it, and it'd take hours to fix. Also it could get dirty.

Finally boredom won out and, grumbling at how terrible an idea this was as you did so, you picked up the large cardboard box it was stored in and made your way outside.

The sun was overwhelmingly bright, and you had to shield your eyes with your forearm as you walked out. Yet despite the sun's rays forcing their way through your retinas, it was still loath-ably cold outside. "Nngh," you griped irritably at the sun. You missed the warm, dark cave of computers and machinery already. Well, you were already out here and at least it was minorly more entertaining than sitting in there doing nothing.

Pushing your glasses up the bridge of your nose, you began the trek downhill to a small grassy patch you knew of behind the English and history wing. The place was always fairly empty, so there wouldn't be as high of a chance of anyone bugging you. Also you wanted to test the robonoid's capability to navigate uneven terrain (such as grass and dirt).

You made your way around the side of the building, glad when there didn't appear to be many people left to notice what you were doing. You'd almost turned the corner when you were stopped short by a gruff, menacing voice.

At first you thought they were talking to you, but soon realized that whoever it was, was behind the building. You let yourself slowly peek around the corner, being careful not to be seen.

A tall, brutish girl with wild, tangled hair that almost touched the ground stood not ten feet away from you. She had a devilish, almost pleased smirk on her face. She seemed to be talking, no, she was definitely _threatening_ whoever was in front of her. The girl's gravelly voice cut through your spine like cold blades, and you were glad to be here instead of the one on the other side of her now raised fist.

Though you were a little curious as to who that unfortunate soul was. Carefully leaning out as far as you dared, you had to bite your lower lip to keep from gasping. Lapis stood with her hands clenched in nervous fists, her arms clamped to her sides. The brutish one had a meaty paw grasped around the collar of her shirt and was pulling her up with enough force that Lapis's heels just barely evaded the ground.

"J-Jasper, please," she gasped desperately, her voice bone dry, "I-I swear I didn't tell anyone! Somebody must have seen last time that this...that you..." Lapis trailed off helplessly, too choked with desperation or fear to finish.

"Is that so? Stop making excuses. We were alone, and no one comes back here who could have seen us. Maybe if you admit you snitched on me, I might only break one of your arms. So, what'll it be. Gonna fess up?" Jasper snarled cruelly, spittle flying from her cracked lips as she spoke.

Lapis looked so defenseless, so frightened. She seemed to be debating whether or not she should lie, just so Jasper might go easy on her, but must have decided against it. Swallowing nervously, she seemed to be steeling herself for the worst as she peeped, barely above a whisper, "I told you, I didn't."

Jasper's face contorted with frustration as she pulled Lapis higher, so that only the tips of her shoes were grounded.

Your hands started moving without you thinking, and soon you were taking the robonoid out of its box, placing it on the ground, activating the controller. A small green light on the robonoid flashed on. You had a slight second of hesitation. _God, what am I doing?_

But you quickly snapped out of it as Lapis's eyes grew wide with terror, before shutting tightly as Jasper raised her fist higher behind her head.

The robonoid sped across the grass (you were thankful it worked so well), causing both Jasper, and eventually Lapis to look curiously at it as it ran towards them. "What is tha-" Jasper began, cut off mid-sentence by the onslaught of shaving cream pummeling her face.

Lapis was immediately forgotten, as Jasper rushed both her hands to her face, all the while shouting incoherently about how it'd gotten in her eyes. It wasn't long before she was lumbering away toward the other side of the building, the robonoid in hot pursuit. You dropped the controller as soon as she had disappeared around the corner; running up to Lapis.

Lapis's mouth had dropped so wide open, it rivaled her shock-stricken eyes. She appeared to be okay for the most part. Sighing, you made your way to the fallen robonoid and piled it back into its box. Great, it was covered in shaving cream. Which of course had picked up a bunch of dead grass and clumps of dirt. It'd take the rest of the day to clean it (a tricky process, as the robonoid wasn't completely water proof).

Lapis had crumpled against the wall, still disoriented by what had just happened

"Hey," you said, thrusting your hand towards her, "You okay?"

She silently let you pull her to her feet. She nodded, keeping her eyes on the ground as she tucked a strand of blue hair behind her ear.

You realized you were still holding her hand, quickly letting go and dropping yours stiffly to your side.

"I..." she trailed off, still uncertain as to what she should say in response to the whole even, "Peridot, was that your, um, device?"

You nodded, "Yeah, that's my robonoid. It can shoot shaving cream." Crap. Of course she already knows that, you dolt.

"I noticed," she laughed, a light soothing sound that sounded like wind chimes.

"I haven't seen anything like that before...where did you get it?" she asked, curiously peering into the box.

"I didn't get if from anywhere. I made it in the engineering lab," you said proudly, holding the box out for her to see.

Lapis tenderly lifted the sphere, it's cylindrical appendages loosely dangling under it. She flicked a bit of shaving cream from the top. Lapis brought the robonoid's underside to eye level, looking interestedly at its apparent free-floating legs. "How do you get them to stay like that?" she asked.

"Magnets, for the most part. There are some on the bottom too that help calculate its center of gravity and keep it standing. It uses a solar cell and electric battery to power the magnets, and I can use the controller to rotate the legs so it moves. But this is just a prototype, it's not perfect yet," you responded.

"Can I try driving it?" she asked, looking at you with excited eyes that resembled a puppy's.

This was what you were worried would happen if you went outside, people would mess around with your stuff. But her eyes, they were just so innocent and pleading and ugh you weren't going to be able to say no were you.

"Augh, fine. But be careful. And the controls are kind of tricky, so you have to pay attention when I explain them to you, otherwise you're going to break something."

She nodded, breaking into a cute closed-mouth smile as she placed the robonoid softly on the ground.

Lapis payed close attention as you explained the complex controls to her, and by the time you'd finally managed the will to part with your precious machine, she actually did a pretty good job of controlling it.

"Hey Lapis, there you are!" a voice called from the other side of the building. "Hey, watcha got there?" They ran up to the robonoid, bending over it.

Well, you shouldn't have expected anything different to have happened.

"Can I have a go next?" they asked excitedly.

And there it was.  
You spent the rest of the next day making repairs to the recently waterlogged controller.

* * *

One thing you find kind of funny, is how when you unthinkingly save someone from what probably would have been a very painful experience, you end up becoming friends.


	4. Chapter 4

For whatever reason, most of Lapis's classes were relatively close to yours, and you'd gotten into the habit of walking with her during passing period. Your Computer Aided Manufacturing (more robotics stuff) and her History class were the only ones with a fair amount of distance between them.

After the whole incident with Jasper, Lapis'd opened up to you a lot more, and you found yourself being slightly more talkative around her (sort of, but honestly you still weren't great at the whole "friend" thing yet).

You'd soon learned that Jasper (Lapis's half-cousin) had been constantly tormenting her since they were little. Lapis'd never told anyone, thinking that the brute might eventually get tired of harassing her and leave her alone if she waited long enough. That still hadn't happened, but Lapis seemed confident that doing absolutely nothing was the best thing for her case.

Yeah, you were sort of glad you'd stepped in.

It hadn't taken long for word to get out that big buff bully Jasper (apparently Lapis wasn't the only one who'd suffered under her) had been nearly blinded by a shaving-cream spewing robot, and it took even less time to single you out as the only person _with_ such a device. Occasionally you'd catch a glimpse of Jasper in the hallway, and if she caught sight of you she'd immediately stiffen like a board. You always made it a point to glare snarkily at her as you passed.

Even as obliviously antisocial as you were, having a kid so beefy she resembled a professional wrestler in slacks and a polo flinch at the sight of a scrawny kid like you felt pretty cool.

One downside of the whole confrontation though was that you couldn't take the robonoid out of the engineering lab without being bombarded by a hoard of students, eager to test drive it (and probably drop the controller in a puddle again). The poor robonoid's moment in the sun was sadly short-lived. Too bad, you'd wanted to test drive it over some more over other outside surfaces. It seemed to do shockingly well over uneven ground, especially compared to its four-wheeled counterparts you'd see at about every robotics convention you'd ever gone to or heard of ever.

You'd decided to focus on that, actually; giving the normally rigid cylindrical legs a way to separate into two, half cylinders thus expanding the robonoid's movement capabilities. After a couple of failed attempts, the resulting robot turned out to be much better at not only maneuvering over almost any surface, but climbing things. Once you'd managed to crawl it up the teacher's desk (well after midnight, you might add), and the horribly unmanly scream that followed caused the three of you still in the lab to fall onto the floor laughing.

But the only functional purpose the new features served was to strengthen your resolve to keep it out of the grimy hands of the average student.

Lapis was the only exception to your rule, and you'd let her come in from time to time and drive it; but only under the condition she didn't tell any of her friends (the last thing you needed was a bunch of rowdy, hormone-fueled teenagers running around and messing up the lab and machine shop area).

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem. Then I wouldn't have as much time to play with it myself," she replied, sending the robonoid into a sharp turn around the lathe machine. "Good. Also, don't tell anyone I let you in. The teachers would freak out if they knew I let a non-authorized student into the lab. And try not to break anything," you added as Lapis almost crashed into a screw box.

She nodded, "I'll be careful." Lapis eased up on the robonoid's speed, deciding instead to send it in circles around the refrigerator in the corner.

"Why is there a fridge in here?" she asked, approaching it in a reserved, curious way; "What do you even _keep_ in there?"

"Dead bodies," you deadpanned. "No, come on we keep food in there what else are refrigerators used for," you continued quickly.

"Why?" she asked, cautiously opening the door. She let out a small gasp at the sight of shelves of soda, pizza and other assorted junk foods practically overflowing the shelves of the fridge.

"During build season, most of us pretty much live here. Oh, uh, that's the time, about two months, we're given to build an entire robot from scratch for this big competition. So there's that. Also a lot of us have no lives and spend a lot of time in here. We use this as nerd fuel.

"Sometimes Pearl or someone will come up here during lunch also, to work on something or whatever, but usually it's just me in here."

Lunch also happened to be the only time you'd let Lapis come up here. If Pearl came up she probably wouldn't mind Lapis being there, and none of the teachers ever wasted their lunch breaks up here anyway.

Lapis gave a small laugh, parking the robonoid at her feet. Suddenly her face stiffened, and she gave you a slightly concerned look. "Peridot, do you...do you really eat lunch up here alone everyday?" her voice dripped with such genuine concern that you had to look away sheepishly.

"Ha ha, what lunch," you joked lamely, voice quiet.

"You don't eat lunch either? Honestly Peridot, that's not good for you, you know!" she mock-scolded, dropping her previously concerned tone in favor of a teasing one. Yet her words still held a ring of sincerity.

"Nnnh," you groaned stubbornly, "But food takes too much time away from doing other things. I mean, I'll eat toast or ramen or something, but only because I can multitask with it."

"No, really. You should try to eat at least three meals, everyday," Lapis said knowingly, wagging her finger with her nose stuck pompously in the air like some self-glorifying school teacher. "I've actually had first-hand experience with the consequences of not eating right," she continued, "See, back when I first started competitively swimming-"

"Uuuuugh here we go again," you moaned, overdramatically throwing your head back. You swear, there wasn't a day that went by without Lapis going on and on about some random thing that had happened to her once. And most of these things involved swimming, which made it even more headache-inducing. Lapis rolled her eyes, giving you a slightly annoyed look before continuing; "Like I said, I'd just started competitive swimming.

"Before then, I used to always skip meals. Not because I was trying to be anorexic or anything, it's just that food never seemed all that appealing to me. It didn't really bother me before though; I'd just get scolded whenever I went to the doctor for being underweight and not eating enough. But when I started swimming, I'd leave practice feeling horrible. I was weak and tired all the time and could barely force myself to move. I kept getting worse and worse until I got really sick, and had to go to the hospital for a couple days.

"I forced myself to start eating regularly, and it was really hard but eventually it got easier for me and now I can swim, no problem," she concluded.

You clapped your hands in the slowest, most sarcastic way you could manage, " _Amazing_ story Lapis. Truly a great and inspirational tale. They should write it down in a book, read it to children. Truly, a masterpiece worthy to be a piece of fine literature."

Lapis huffed, crossing her arms at the apparent lostness of the moral on you, but didn't say anything.

"And you see," you said quickly, twirling your hand around your wrist almost antagonistically, "I don't swim, do I? Don't plan to anytime soon either. So what's the problem?"

"But that doesn't-I don't-Ugh! Whatever, it still isn't healthy," she said, slightly flustered.

"Yeah, well, neither is staying awake for two months straight, but I've managed _that_ for two years in a row," you retorted.

Lapis decided to drop the subject.

The rest of the conversation circled around various topics of small talk; just light chatter that you barely had to pay attention to. Lapis usually did most of the talking anyway, and you were perfectly fine with that.

* * *

The next morning you were surprised to find a sandwich covered in thin plastic wrap (that annoying kind that either holds really well or doesn't, and if it doesn't you have to wrap the damn stuff about a dozen times to keep it from falling off) sitting on the small wooden desk at the foot of your bed. You almost never used your desk, but you kept it tidy and clutter-free nonetheless (something you couldn't say about Lapis).

Every unused paper was in place, each uncapped pen laid neatly in a small plastic cup. And then there was just this sandwich, cut into neat little triangles, that had appeared on your desk overnight as if by magic, though you were pretty certain it wasn't magic (cause that would be stupid), just Lapis.

Closer inspection revealed that it was turkey and cucumber (you couldn't believe she'd remembered that you like cucumber. You'd mentioned it once, offhandedly, but you hadn't thought she'd been listening).

Grumbling, you shoved it into your ratty black jansport with your other things. You didn't feel like arguing with Lapis if she came back and the sandwich was still there. She'd undoubtedly nag you for not taking it, and try something more drastic tomorrow. Better to not fight it and go along with her plans now instead of having a sandwich shoved forcefully down your throat later. Slinging your bag over one shoulder, you ducked out the door, thinking that you might actually make it to the robotics meeting in time today and wouldn't have to miss first period again. Sadly enough, hopeful thoughts did what they do for most everyone, which is absolutely nothing, and you were half an hour late for your first class.

All throughout first period your mind kept drifting to the intrudous food item in your bag. Half the time you debated if you'd actually eat it, or simply throw it away in one of the many trash cans around the school. But of course Lapis would just happen to look into that one particular trash can, and make you eat the sandwich anyway, despite its recent interaction with garbage. And why'd she have to make it _cucumber_ of all things.

You felt your breakfast-starved stomach give a twist of protest at the thought of cucumbers. You hadn't eaten one in what seemed like ages. You couldn't fathom where Lapis had gotten it, cause they never had them in the cafeteria. She'd probably gone through at least a bit of trouble for it.

Stupid Lazuli. She didn't have to do that for you.

Later that evening when Lapis finally trudged through the door, she simply let herself slump onto her bed without a single word about the sandwich; just started droning on about this big swimming tournament thing she had in a month, and how she had longer practices and blah blah blah.

She'd trailed off into exhausted silence a while ago, and you looked over to find her staring at the ceiling. Suddenly Lapis stood up, and you swear it was just to check for that stupid sandwich wrapper because when she saw it in the waste basket she gave you just about the smuggest look you'd ever seen.

You scowled at her in response, returning to your Calculus homework.

The next day, there was another sandwich.

She must have been leaving them before you woke up (Lapis had early practices in addition to the late ones. Apparently the team captain really wanted to win regionals).

Yet even while waking up at some ungodly hour and coming back late with barely enough energy to move, there never failed to be a cucumber and turkey sandwich sitting on your desk each morning for the next two weeks.

For the life of you, you couldn't figure out how she'd managed to find the ingredients to make all these sandwiches. The only place to get food was the school cafeteria, and the nearest town was a couple miles away (just too far to be in easy walking distance).

One day, Lapis'd decided to get adventurous, and had placed a small Ziploc bag of carrots next to the usual sandwich. You hated vegetables (well except for cucumbers), and carrots fell at the very top of the list. They were so stiff and they were crunchy in this really weird way, not to mention they tasted like dirt. You'd promptly alerted her of your sentiment towards the horrific orange rods by dumping the entire bag into the shower.

This was also how you learned of Lapis's inability to take a joke.

She'd been in the bathroom for about ten minutes, doing god knows what, because you couldn't hear water running or anything. Suddenly Lapis let out a gargled screeching noise, so loud you'd thought a serial killer had crawled up the drain.

She ran from the room, a towel loosely clutched around her, rushing behind you and peeking around your shoulder while clutching your arm so hard you're pretty sure it left bruises. You shook her off quickly, giving her a baffled look; "Lapis wha-"

"There's orange bugs in the bathroom!" she shrieked, the towel sliding down her shoulder slightly as she pointed at the still-open bathroom door.

At first you had absolutely no idea what the heck she was going on about. Orange bugs? What type of bug was orange-

Then you remembered the hideous load of way-to-bright-orange-to-be-natural vegetables.

You couldn't help it; laughter seized your chest, and though you clamped a hand firmly over your mouth you failed to contain your hysterical spouts of laughter slipping through. You could hardly stand, having to prop yourself up on the desk chair in a half-hearted attempt to keep yourself from falling to the floor.

At first Lapis was puzzled as to why you'd found this so hilarious, but her confusion began to slowly melt into anger. "Peridot! What did you do!" she shouted angrily. "L-Lapis," you gasped, trying to speak in between bursts of laughter, "They're carrots, Lapis. They're just c-carrots, the ones you gave me." You broke into a another fit of guffaws, cutting off your sentence. Lapis fumed, marching huffily into the bathroom. Probably to clean up the orange monstrosities.

* * *

Lapis refused to talk to you for the rest of the night, and you didn't probe her to. She didn't have to if she didn't want to. In fact, you kind of enjoyed the silence; it was a break from all her wretched swim stories at the least. Anyway it was her choice to give you the silent treatment. It's not like you were going to apologize or anything. _She_ was the one who'd thought they were bugs (you still couldn't figure out how she'd made that mistake, because they were obviously carrots).

The next morning was a Saturday, yet for whatever reason your clock blared the ugly number eight. Way too early for a Saturday. You tried going back to sleep, but ended up just rolling around until you'd tangled your legs in your quilt.

Still not quite awake, but deciding it was hopeless to try going back to sleep, you padded towards the bathroom.

The white tank top you were wearing was draped loosely around you, more hanging off your shoulders than actually clinging to your body in any sensible way. This and your (also rather loose-fitting) sweat pants served as the closest thing to actual pajamas you'd ever get.

You grabbed your toothbrush, more slapping it against your teeth than actually brushing. You mindlessly grabbed for your green sweater hung on the constantly towel-less towel rack. You had some difficulty pulling it on though. It seemed...lumpier than usual, and a lot heavier than you remember it being.

It wasn't until you'd gotten it over your head that you realized carrots had been super-glued all around the outside.

You heard the click of a camera phone too late.

You jerked up to find Lapis darting away, phone in hand, but you weren't going to let her get away that easy.

"Lapis!" you yelled, dashing into the dorm hall after her, "I'll kill you I swear to-no stop laughing! There is nothing funny bout this, that was my favorite sweatshirt! Also, why carrots?! That isn't even creative, it's just weird. And it's going to take me forever to get those things off. Lapi-huff-sss...no why are...you so fas-t-" you panted, falling to your knees on the dew-laden grass of the lawn right outside the dormitory. Still panting, you figured it wasn't worth the effort of running after her when she was obviously much faster and decided to stare at the shadowed grass below you until you'd caught your breath.

You kinda sucked at anything that involved any kind of physical exertion. And she kinda competed in sports (though you'd never actually seen her swim, if she was anything like she ran dear god you felt bad for the poor person set against her).

You were still bent over a few minutes later when you heard Lapis jog up beside you. Her feet were right in front of your face, but you still didn't lift your head. She was barefoot, which couldn't have been comfortable when she'd run across the grass (well you were too, but you hadn't run as far. Still your feet were now all wet and mucky). Her toes were painted a bright teal, something you didn't really expect from Lapis as she didn't seem exactly fond of fingernail polish and actually tended to chew her nails so they were too short to do much of anything with anyway. You wondered absent-mindedly if she'd painted them herself, or gotten them done somewhere.

 _Wait, you're supposed to be mad at her_ you reminded yourself.

"Peridot, are you-" You held up a finger, cutting her off.

Pulling yourself to your feet, you turned and began the return trip to your dorm (making sure to hold up a more expressive finger this time behind your back). You could hear her trying desperately not to laugh at the nerd with stupid hair who was walking barefoot across the lawn with a bunch of freaking carrots glued to her.

Ugh she thought she was soooo clever. Well two could play at that game. If said immature exchange of unpleasant actions was a game, that is, which it most definitely wasn't. In fact, you weren't even participating really. You were just getting revenge. Yeah, you mean, she _did_ ruin your favorite sweatshirt. Nothing childish about revenge.

 _She's gonna regret messing with my things_ you thought bitterly as you rummaged around the back of your closet. There was way too much junk in here, and you had to crawl over several piles just to get to the back. You didn't even think you _owned_ this much stuff.

You always forget that the school was supposed to be one of those "prestigious private" ones that you have to pay a good sum of money or earn some scholarship (that would be you) to get in, and the dorms were a lot nicer than ones at other places (each having its own bathroom and two fairly large closets, one for each student, in addition to the main room).

Ah, there it was.

You grabbed the bottle of bright green acrylic paint from underneath a box of old binders, popping the lid to make sure there was still some left. Yep, just enough for what you wanted to do.

It was almost one in the morning when you finally deemed it safe to crawl out of bed and sneak into the bathroom. Lapis was a light sleeper, so you tread so carefully you swear you must have floated half the way. Finally reaching the bathroom, you reached for the knob only to shudder and retract your hand slightly. You'd almost forgotten that you had to twist it slowly, otherwise the knob'd start making a noise similar to that of two pieces of rusty metal being scraped together. Clicking your tongue against your teeth at almost making a critical mistake, you walked inside.

Pushing the door shut, you flipped the light switch; illuminating the dull tiles in a milky glow. You pulled the bottle of paint out of the front pocket of a spare sweatshirt you'd found (an ugly mustard-colored one that'd been shoved in a corner at the back of the closet).

It didn't take you long to locate Lapis's bottle of "Ocean Blue" hair-dye. She got her hair dyed every few months at some professional place in the nearby town, but she'd explained that by using the store-bought kind in addition to this, it strengthened the color and kept her roots from showing too much (apparently Lapis was a brunette).

You emptied the sludge-like green liquid into the bottle, quickly pocketing the evidence. You silently stole back into bed, feeling immensely proud of yourself for retaliating Lapis's weak attempt at a prank with such a clever trick.

You woke up on the chilly tiles of the bathroom floor, the shower's sprayer pummeling you with ice cold water. Apparently Lapis'd dragged you in here without waking you (you were a pretty heavy sleeper), (a now soaking) quilt and all.

"PERIDOT!" she spat, so loud she'd probably woken the whole floor.

"PERIDOT WHAT THE ABSOLUTE-"

"Wai-wai, Lapis, what happened to your..." you trailed off, the foggy comfort of sleep leaving you for the cold reality of how deep of shit you were in. Slowly you began to remember why her hair wasn't blue. It wasn't green exactly, but more of a mix; a sort of tealish color. Matched her toes pretty well actually.

You opened your mouth, but decided against speaking as you were being pierced by a daggered stare that could have put any snake's venom to shame.

There was a pit forming in the bottom of your stomach, a dark hole sucking everything in, dragging you down through the floor. It felt weird, horrible. Not painful exactly, but more achy, in a way. You felt it in your chest now too, and in your throat as you tried speaking again, so that the only words that came were "I'm sorry."

Lapis's eyes softened slightly as your face filled with...regret? Guilt? Was that really what you were feeling? You'd never been guilty, not in your whole life, about anything (not the getting scolded for something when you're a kid guilty, the real stuff that makes you feel awful and want to make it up to whoever you hurt by doing anything and everything you can). It was weird, and you didn't like it. But in all honesty, you _did_ feel kind of bad for making her this upset.

After a couple of seconds of you staring solemnly at the floor, you looked up with what must have been a remorseful expression, because the anger almost completely left her eyes. She was such a pushover, you were almost annoyed that she'd let it go that easy. You'd turned her hair the color of polluted water, and all you did was look at her and apologize. Still though, you were kind of relieved she wasn't upset with you.

"Uuuuugh, fine." she groaned, "I mean, I _did_ need to get it re-dyed soon anyway. But I hope you do realize," she said the words slowly, carefully; giving you an evil smirk that caused a different kind of pit to tug at your insides, "I'll have to get you back for this." You didn't like where this was going.

Lapis grabbed her brush from the counter. It was one of those big square ones with all the little pointy plastic bits jutting out of its face that constantly screamed vows of death at tangled hair. Oh god, no wait what was she doing with that. No, wait, why was she coming closer. The look on her face was far from comforting, a look that rivaled yours last night. She looked so satisfied with herself, it was terrifying.

"Lapis, no, I mean I said I was sorry, which I never do, so can't we figure this out? Maybe we can-wait no, Lapis-" You ducked around her just before she pounced, hairbrush in hand. "Peridot," she almost _sang_ , "There's no use running. You know I'm faster than you."

You ran for the door anyway, but she'd grabbed hold of the back of your tank top (you'd ditched your sweatshirt from last night cause it'd gotten paint smeared on the front). Throwing the door fully open, you twisted out of her grip and managed to run a few feet down the dormitory hall before you felt her weight slam against your back, knocking the two of you over.

"No, wait Lapis can't we just talk about it?" you pleaded.

"What's wrong Peridot? Afraid of a _hairbrush_?" she taunted.

You were lying flat on your stomach now, and Lapis was digging her knees into your elbows in a less-than-comfortable way so you couldn't move as she started tearing at your hair with her murder weapon. "Ack! Lapis what the heck, you aren't even trying to be gentle!" you yelled.

Lapis snickered, giving your hair another painful tug. She was actually really _enjoying_ this wasn't she? "Ouch!" you complained as she continued to rip out your hair. "Stop being so wimpy!" she scolded, hitting you across the back of the head with her brush. "Owww Lapis you didn't need to hit me."

"If you don't like it, then you shoulda thought twice before you turned my head green," she replied snarkily, eliciting an audible grumble from you.

Ten excruciating minutes later, you'd come to the conclusion that there were either less knots, or your scalp had grown numb to being torn apart. So even if it hurt less than before, each tug of the brush sent bursts of pain through the top of your head.

"Lapis you can stop now, it's really starting to hurt," you complained loudly. You could feel her shifting above you as she shook her head, no, and you sighed irritably.

"U-uhm P-Peridot...!" Pearl's voice shook slightly as she stared down at the both of with a slight blush painting her face. "What?" you asked a little more unpleasantly than you'd meant to.

Lapis'd stopped brushing at the sight of Pearl (still not loosening her hold on you), choosing instead to rest her forearms against your head. She felt stiff, and you heard what sounded like a stifled laugh.

It then dawned on you as to what the situation must look like and, oh god, how it must sound.

"Oh," is all that you could say. A blush crept across your face.

"I, uh, I can respect your life choices Peridot, if that's how you feel about...and, sorry, you can go back to doing, um...that," she said, running her words together in her haste to spit them out. "Wait, no, it's not like that!" you yelled as Pearl quickly ran back down the stairwell she'd come from.

"Ach Pearl come back! No wait, it's not-! Augh! It's not like you haven't been crushing on Quartz the last three years!" you shouted stubbornly after her, but you doubted she'd heard you.

Not even trying to contain her laughter, Lapis went back to brushing. "You're both idiots," you hissed, resting your chin against the dusty floor.

"Done!" Lapis chirped a few minutes later as she pulled the brush smoothly through one last time, finally releasing you. Quickly clambering up, you shot her a glare you hoped was as venom-filled as the one she'd given you earlier. "Ugh, Lapis-"

"You're still red," she cut off, laughing a little.

"Hmmph," you griped, crossing your arms.

"Come on, let's get back," she said, waving you back into the dorm. Once the door was safely shut, you flopped onto your bed, determined to stay there for the rest of the day. Or the week. Or forever, really. Cause that was sounding like a pretty good idea.

Fifteen minutes later, you finally sat up to find Lapis fiddling around on your laptop. You didn't really want to argue with her about it right now. You didn't mind most of the time, anyway. She just went on stupid sites like tumblr and quotev and always gave it back when you asked.

You were still kind of mad at her, but found it hard to stay so when your eyes kept drifting back to her muggy-colored hair, bits of paint clumped here and there that she apparently hadn't taken the time to wash out.

"You know, it's amazing that with all the yelling we were doing no one came out to see what was going on," you finally said.

"Of course they did," Lapis replied evenly.

"Wait, seriously?" you bolted upright out of the bed.

"Yeah," she gave you a quick glance before returning to whatever weird game she was playing, "You didn't notice?" A small laugh.

"Well I was sort of trapped on the floor if you don't remember," you sat back down, leaning against your headboard and folding your arms across your chest. If only you still had your sweatshirt to curl up in.

"Yeah, pretty much everyone on the floor was watching through their doors at one point. A couple even came out when you started shouting at Pearl," she had an almost satisfied look on her face.

"Uuuuuugh," you groaned, deciding to use your quilt as a makeshift sweatshirt and crawling into a ball under it, head and all.

"Ah, come on," you felt the bed bump as Lapis sat next to you. " _I_ was the one pinning you down. If anything, they'll think _I'm_ the weird one," she said, poking your quilt lump (she'd ended up jabbing the bottom of your foot, and you'd had to bite your lip to keep from laughing. You were regrettably very ticklish, and you weren't too keen on letting most people know that, as being tickled was a rather uncomfortable experience for you. Usually you could hide it pretty well. Sweatshirts were good for that sort of thing. You really needed to get a new one).

"Now come on," she said peppily, "I want you to take this quiz. It's supposed to tell you what kind of swimmer you are! I mean, I already know what I am, so it'd be pointless if I took it. But I'm really curious to see what you'd be."

"Ugh, fiiiine, if it'll keep you from tackling me," you moaned, poking your head out of your blanket bundle.

* * *

 **((Sorry about the late post, I didn't have internet access for a while.**

 **Also if you've never had a brush forcibly pulled through your hair after it's been severely neglected for a long period of time, it really isn't fun))**


	5. Chapter 5

A circle of light appeared over the corner of the tab you had set open to Steam, letting you know something was up. You didn't really go on Steam much, maybe once a month. It was odd for you to get alerts, unless it was some update for a game or something. But you'd just been on, and nothing had _seemed_ like it needed updating. You opened the tab curiously.

You didn't own any game consoles, so when you _did_ play video games (which wasn't often) you'd resorted to downloading them on your laptop through Steam. You didn't really make that much time for computer games, but when you didn't have anything else to do they served as a useful time-killer.

 _Friend request from Ocean_Angel_

Who was that. You didn't know anyone by that user, and you didn't think you'd met them before, from any of the few times you'd played multiplayer. You didn't have many friends on Steam anyway, though you got more than enough requests (you were kinda good at the games you did play for whatever odd reason).

Again, friends were too much work to deal with (even if they were video game nerds). You usually just let the requests sit and rot until you'd completely forgotten they were there.

But at least when you got those requests, it was usually from someone in robotics or who you'd played with before. But you'd never seen this person, or at least you don't remember them. You were almost tempted to click "yes", but knew better. It could be some creep or advertising robot (probably for something stupid based on the username). So you left it alone along with the others you never bothered deleting.

You pulled open YouTube, blasting synth mixes through your earbuds as you clicked through some design ideas you'd had for the robonoid. The spray nozzle was a bit too jutty-outty for your liking. It looked clunky and made the robot front-heavy so it always tilted slightly when it moved. Preferably you wanted a completely smooth sphere, free of extremities.

You'd been working on a compartment inside the robot made to conceal the nozzle, with a sliding door that could open to reveal the sprayer.

A light popped up on the minimized Steam tab, but you ignored it. Probably another clod stupidly wanting to be your friend.

Ten minutes later and the light hadn't stopped flashing. It was starting to bug you. A lot.

You clicked the program open, with the full intention of closing it completely when your eye caught the more than one hundred friend requests from Ocean_Angel. Wow. Whoever they were, they were definitely persistent. Now you were interested.

Running over in your mind that this was a terrible, horrible idea that wouldn't end well, you clicked the accept button.

Not three seconds later a message board popped up, a single two-lettered "hi" decorating the dull grey-black. Jeez that was fast. Maybe they were a robot after all.

Their profile picture was the ocean, free of land or any other ugly uneven surfaces; simply displaying the grace of the flat-as-glass water. Maybe they were selling...water? The ocean? A boat? You didn't know and honestly didn't really care.

It took you a minute, but you finally decided that returning their greeting was a better idea than doing nothing at all. At the very least, it was something minorly interesting.

 _ **DoritoDew :** hey_

Again, an almost immediate reply.

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** It's nice to meet you, Dorito ;)_

What the heck, was that a wink or

 _ **DoritoDew :** uh, you too I guess_

 _ **DoritoDew :** . . ._

 _ **DoritoDew :** you_

 _ **DoritoDew :** you aren't like some automated program or something?_

 _ **DoritoDew :** like, you don't want to sell me something or give me a virus or whatever else some jerk'd program one of those for_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** What? Of course not silly!_

 ** _Ocean_Angel :_** _I'm a real person, just like you_

 _ **DoritoDew :** sounds like something a robot might say_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Well then..._

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Maybe I am a robot!_

 _ **DoritoDew :** are you?_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Am I?_

 _ **DoritoDew :** you tell me_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** or you could tell me_

 _ **DoritoDew :** I_

 _ **DoritoDew :** you know what_

 _ **DoritoDew :** I take back everything I just said_

 _ **DoritoDew :** no computer program could be this dim witted_

 _ **DoritoDew :** unless it was programmed by an idiot_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Yeah, probably that_

 _ **DoritoDew :** well_

 _ **DoritoDew :** admitting the problem is the first step to recovery_

You heard a giggle from across the room, and your eyes darted towards Lapis fast enough to see her cup a hand over her mouth. She looked like she was trying hard not to make a sound, but there was laughter in her eyes. She must've be watching some weird video on her phone or something.

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** And I presume you'll be with me every step of the way, helping me along as I make my way to a full recovery?_

 _ **DoritoDew :**_ _yeah, no_

 _ **DoritoDew :** not my problem_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Cold_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I've been left alone_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** No support from anyone_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Left all on my own to recover from_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** This_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Illness_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I have_

 _ **DoritoDew :** idiocy_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Yeah that one!_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Wait I mean_

 _ **DoritoDew :** wow_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** augh_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** jerk_

 _ **DoritoDew :** that's no way to talk to someone you just met_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** yeah I guess so_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I'm not doing very well at this, am I?_

 _ **DoritoDew :** not really, no_

 _ **DoritoDew :** though I'm not entirely clear on exactly what it is you are trying to *do* exactly_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Talk to you!_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I thought that was obvious_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I mean, isn't that what people do? Talk to other people on the internet and then they become "internet buddies" or something?_

 _ **DoritoDew :** i_

 _ **DoritoDew :** that_

 _ **DoritoDew :** was an incredibly lame way to say that_

 _ **DoritoDew :** but, I guess so_

 _ **DoritoDew :** though I'd think they'd usually try to use a site with a more social crowd, because as far as I know most people who play computer games in an even remotely serious way are pretty antisocial_

 _ **DoritoDew :** plus they usually only talk to people with the same weird obsessions they have_

 _ **DoritoDew :** and no offense, but you don't really seem the type_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Yeah, not really!_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** At least, I don't think I am anyway_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I mean, I would have tried somewhere else probably_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** But this is the only site I ever see you on!_

 _ **DoritoDew :** . . ._

 _ **DoritoDew :** . . . . . . . ._

 _ **DoritoDew :** . . .what do you mean_

 _ **DoritoDew :** 'see' me_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Oh, uh. . ._

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I mean, not 'see' as in see see with eyes and stuff_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I. . .mean, your username_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Cause I wanted to use it, you know!_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I always use that one, but_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I couldn't this time, because you did!_

 _ **DoritoDew :** really_

 _ **DoritoDew :** because this is kind of a weird name_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Yep, that's why I was really surprised to see that you'd taken it!_

 _ **DoritoDew :** umm_

 _ **DoritoDew :** okay_

 _ **DoritoDew :** let's go with that_

 _ **DoritoDew :** and for the time being, assume that you *aren't* some creep who for whatever reason chose me to stalk_

 _ **DoritoDew :** or someone from class trying to mess with me_

 _ **DoritoDew :** what do you want?_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I already told you!_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I want to be internet buddies!_

 _ **DoritoDew :** first off that's really lame_

 _ **DoritoDew :** and second, stop using so many !'s_

 _ **DoritoDew :** it's really very annoying_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Oh sorry!_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Whoops, I mean_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Oh sorry_

 _ **DoritoDew :** uh, yeah_

 _ **DoritoDew :** well if you really do want to be_

 _ **DoritoDew :** "internet buddies"_

A small shudder wracked your body as you painstakingly typed the immensely idiotic words. Whoever was on the other end of this had a very, interesting, way of putting things. You'd best compare their communication style to that of a third grader, all happy and innocent with their puke-inducing optimism. The worst part being, you doubted whoever this was was younger than a freshman in high school.

Despite this, you were beginning to form your own theories as to the identity of the mystery person. You gave Lapis another quick look, praying you were wrong, and she wasn't actually going through this.

 _ **DoritoDew :** if you want to be friends, you need to know me right? because friends know things about each other, if I'm not mistaken_

 _ **DoritoDew :** I'll start_

 _ **DoritoDew :** first thing you should know about me is that I'm an antisocial shut in with absolutely no socializing skills and no desire to change that_

 _ **DoritoDew :** I hate people_

 _ **DoritoDew :** I hate talking to people_

 _ **DoritoDew :** and honestly it gives me a headache_

 _ **DoritoDew :** and if all you want to do is just make a bunch of internet friends, you're better off look somewhere else because I'm less than interested_

 _ **DoritoDew :** honestly, I'm really bad at the whole "friendship" thing_

 _ **DoritoDew :** and you're wasting your time if you think I'm going to be any less of an asshole because you're "going out of your way to try and be buddies with the poor friendless kid"_

 _ **DoritoDew :** because really, I don't think you'd want me as a friend anyway_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Peridot, that's not true! You aren't bad at talking to people_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I mean, you are an asshole, but_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** oh_

The moment your name had appeared on the screen you'd turned your gaze on Lapis. It'd taken her a whole two lines to realize her mistake, but by then it was too late.

Her lips were pressed together in a tight line, and her expression became a filtered mixture of regret and "whoops".

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Um_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** I mean_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Peridorito_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** That was_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** A typo_

 _ **DoritoDew :** Lapis just give it up_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Lapis?_

 _ **Ocean_Angel :** Who is this Lapis you speak of?_

"That's it Lazuli," you said, sharply closing your laptop and letting it flop onto the quilt as you jumped off the bed. "No, wait Peridot," she said quickly as you made your way towards her. When you crossed over into her half of the room, you had to slow your pace a bit so you didn't trip over piles of her stuff she usually left lying around in heaps. You always nagged her to clean it up, or at the very least push it into a corner so you didn't have to worry about breaking your neck when you went to the bathroom. Sometimes she'd shove it out of the way, but by the next day the pile would have mysteriously reformed.

"You've officially lost your phone privileges," you said monotonously, clambering onto her bed and making to grab the device from her by force. She immediately stuck her arm, phone in hand, out of your reach above her; but you had at least an inch or two on her height-wise, and easily grabbed her wrist. Using your knee, you propped yourself up on her leg so you could try and pry her fingers loose with your free hand.

You'd almost got it, when Lapis fell back onto the bed suddenly (probably in a last-ditch effort to keep you away), taking you with her. You'd quickly resumed clawing at her fingers, but to less of an avail.

Jeez, how tight was her grip? She wasn't even using both hands, and yet two of yours still couldn't relinquish her grasp on the device. "Come on, just give it up," you said through gritted teeth. Trying to get a better vantage point, you stuck one of your knees on the bed and rested the other on Lapis's chest.

"Ack! Peridot, get off I can't breathe!" she laughed, but her voice held a desperate note.

"Not until you give me your phone," you threatened.

"No, seriously get off," you felt Lapis's body convulse under you, and heard a loud spluttering cough escape her followed by a rally of others. Luckily, she was distracted enough by her coughing fit that the grip on her phone loosened, and you were finally able to pull it free.

"Ha ha got it!" you gloated triumphantly, holding the phone high in the air.

"Good, now get off," Lapis wheezed, her voice oddly cold and unjoking. It took you a moment to process that your knee was still pushing rather firmly into her chest. But by the time you'd realized this, Lapis was already using her newly free hand to try and push you off of her. She only succeeded to flop you uselessly over her other arm, but off her chest nonetheless.

You quickly scrambled to the other side of the bed, sitting awkwardly on your knees. Lapis simply lay there for a while, sucking in oxygen in shallow wheezy spurts that slowly grew deeper and more even until she was breathing normally. Even after she'd regained her breath, you didn't speak. You were worried you'd done something wrong, that you'd hurt her, and you decided that talking probably wouldn't help your situation.

You'd occupied yourself with trying to guess Lapis's password (and only succeeding in locking it after too many failed attempts), when Lapis suddenly spoke what were probably the last words you expected.

"Thank you," she said without a trace of cynicality or sarcasm. She's said it in a casual way, as if she were just thanking someone for holding a door open for her or something. Why was she thanking you? You'd just nearly suffocated her, and hadn't gotten off when she'd asked. You couldn't begin to think of what thought process had led Lapis to come to the conclusion that she had to _thank_ you of all things.

"I...I had asthma when I was younger, in case you were wondering, and it doesn't really flare up much anymore but sometimes..." she trailed off, here expression turning misty.

Oh.

 _Well, you screwed up_ contributed a little voice in the back of your head. You told that voice that it could just shut up, because it wasn't being very helpful right now.

"Hmmph," was all you said in reply before rolling off her bed. "Here," you muttered, throwing the small square at Lapis; the device hit her in the shoulder before falling into her lap. "Wait...you're giving it to me? Just like that?" Lapis asked, giving you a slightly surprised look.

"Just don't do anything stupid like that again," you replied in a bored tone before returning to your laptop on the other side of the room.

"Yeah," her lips twitched up slightly as she placed her phone next to her on the bed. You raised an eyebrow at her simple answer instead of the gloat-fest you'd been expecting, but said nothing about it as you clicked your laptop open.

You'd forgotten to close the Steam board, and noticed that there was a message you'd missed in your hurry to snatch Lapis's phone.

 _Ocean_Angel : I don't think your a bad friend_

The action was reflexive, and you were quick to wipe it from your face the second after it appeared, but for the briefest of moments you couldn't help but smile.

* * *

 **((Sorry this chapter's so late. I suddenly got really busy and haven't had a chance to update. Hopefully once school starts, I'll update on a more regular schedule))**


	6. Chapter 6

It was only early November, yet for whatever unfathomable reason there was so much snow on the ground it was near impossible to go outside without wading through foot-deep white sludge. One of the rare "privileges" of living just about as far north as you can go without hitting Canada, you supposed. You got to drown in snow as early as October.

This year it'd first snowed on Halloween, though that's about all the significance the date held for you. It wasn't a particularly spectacular holiday in your eyes (though you'd insisted on trick-or-treating every year until your mom had made you stop at age 13 as you were "too old"). Though you'd expected this year to be at least somewhat different, because this time you'd have a roommate. But Lapis'd gone out with her swim club friends to some party or something (she'd had gone as a water nymph). It'd kept them out all night, and Lapis had sleepily wobbled in well after dawn the next day (though you had a sinking suspicion that half of the wobbling had more to do with her obviously inebriated state than actual drowsiness); immediately collapsing on her bed for the next fourteen hours.

You'd never really thought her the drinking type (though based on how unprepared she was to awake to her brain trying to rip itself apart, she probably usually wasn't). You knew you weren't. Once, when you were little, you'd licked the inside of an empty beer bottle out of curiosity. All the adults always drank the stuff, so it must taste really good right? You were far beyond horror as you rushed to the sink; and had spent the next half hour running water over your tongue in an attempt to wash out the repulsive taste.

Maybe she'd gotten tricked into it or something, or pressured into it maybe. Under-aged alcohol wasn't something you'd pegged the rule stickler, exceedingly health conscious Lapis Lazuli to be into, but whatever. Her life. Maybe she liked that sort of thing. You were just her roommate, you didn't even see her half the time so how would you know what she was like around her friends.

You were paused mid-thought by a shiver racking its way through your body. Jeez, the temperature shouldn't be allowed to get this low. It was barely even winter, yet it was so cold outside that as soon as school'd let out for the day you'd gone straight to your room and curled up under three separate blankets, pulling your recently de-carroted hoodie on for good measure.

Ugh and on top of it all you were _so bored_. It wasn't fair, honestly someone must have it out for you, because absolutely everything that could have possibly gone wrong in the past few days had miraculously found a way to happen.

Earlier in the week, the giant furnace-like space heater (they'd dragged it up from some storage closet years ago. And the thing was old _then_ ) that kept the robotics lab from freezing over had decided that this was an absolutely wonderful time to just stop working. Now it was colder in there than outside, and since the majority of everything in there were made of metal it didn't make it much fun to do anything.

Nevertheless, you'd forced yourself to trudge up there in ankle-deep snow. It was a pain, but it was better than going back to your dorm. You'd dug out an old pair of dark green gloves, which helped protect against at least some of the nip of the icy parts and machinery. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was bearable.

But then _someone_ had to go and see if they would actually get their tongue stuck by licking the machinery, and the teacher'd needed to call down two janitors and the school nurse to pry them loose. So for the time being, the lab was closed off until the heater was fixed or the students "learned how to handle the machinery in the mature and professional way I know you're all capable of" which roughly translated to "Now none of you can use the lab because one of you decided to be an immature prick".

This left you with absolutely nowhere else to go. So there you lay, every blanket you could find curled around you and yet you were still so cold your teeth were chattering. This little irksome had actually been Lapis's fault.

A couple days ago, she'd walked into the sauna-like room and mocked you for your incredibly low tolerance to any temperature under seventy degrees. You'd quickly retorted that you were _just_ as intolerant to anything above that as well, but by the time you'd processed the words that had reflexively spewed from your mouth you couldn't take them back and Lapis was already laughing on the floor.

You'd show her. You didn't need any dumb heating system.

Though you weren't going to lie, it was a bit of a...challenge, living in arctic-like conditions with no refuge other than layer upon layer of cloth. You swear you could feel a draft through your blanket nest. How cold was it, it was November. It was just unnatural.

It took you all of ten minutes to grow bored of your dark cave, and fifteen more to decide to risk poking your head out for a second to drag your laptop in with you. The second you'd left your slightly-warmer-than-outside haven, the cold pricked at your face with painful icy needles. You instinctively reached for your bedside table, where you usually kept it plugged in. But oddly enough, the laptop wasn't there. You scanned the room, searching for the little smooth block of metal. Oh great, it was by the window.

The memory of the stupid thing overheating (what with being covered by an army of blankets) came to mind. You'd put it on the sill in an attempt to cool it down, but obviously hadn't remembered that you'd need to walk all the way over there to get it.

You hadn't remembered until now, but you'd had to put it on the sill to cool it down. The dumb thing had almost overheated (well, what with being covered by an army of blankets), and you must have thought that putting it by the coldest place in the room was a good idea. Obviously you hadn't thought the plan through well enough, because now you'd have to walk all the way over there to get it.

Padding to the window in green and yellow socked feet, you made a reach for your laptop but stopped short at movement on the other side of the glass. You relaxed slightly once you'd identified the action as a falling ice crystal. It was snowing again. Wonderful.

You looked at the patchy ground outside. It hadn't snowed in a while, and the ice had melted enough that mud from people's shoes would get dragged to the surface, and decorate the uneven ground with ugly spots of slushy brown. Maybe the new stuff would cover that up a bit better, and though that'd mean less dirt, there'd be more icy water seeping into your socks through your shoes. You didn't know which was worse.

The flakes themselves began to accumulate into angry clumps of ice, which made odd little watery splotches against the window pane as the wind blew them onto the building. The whole scene was abominable, and about as far from any winter wonderland you'd ever heard of. It was cold and wet and unpleasant and now you couldn't see much of anything through the gathering snow and you just knew it'd be impossible to find your way to your classes tomorrow if the weather persisted. Great, that was just what you needed. More things to over complicate your life.

You weren't in the best of moods as it was (robotics usually helped defuse some of your negativity), and the fact that it was winter and cold and horrible didn't help that. You stood by the window, seething at the snow for another couple minutes. You were finally broken from your silent battle by the site of a lone figure, bundled in every kind of jacket and scarf, making their way across the would-be dormitory lawn.

The sidewalk hadn't been cleared the last time it'd snowed, and the new layer made it even more impossible to tell if they were walking across the dead grass or trying not to slip across the sidewalk. You blandly watched them approach the structure, expecting them to go in at which point you would lose interest and go back to your laptop and snow-fuming. But at the last second they made a hard right at the dorm entrance, causing you to involuntarily arch a surprised eyebrow.

Even though you were only on the second floor, you couldn't make out their face through all the snow. You couldn't even discern their gender. Whoever they were decided to stop and sit on a bench that happened to stand almost directly below your window. As they sat, they'd disappeared from sight for a moment, and you had to crane your neck to catch a glimpse of them (and then you could barely see their head and part of their body).

The stranger leaned forward, their shoulders hunched and arms clutched around them. It looked like they were trying to cave in on themselves, like they were trying to disappear. You wondered absently what they could be so upset about. You don't know why you cared, but for some reason you were drawn to curiousity of this other person and their problem's. It was something about how they moved...it was weirdly familiar.

Suddenly they clutched at their black and white striped beanie latched to their head, pulling it off to reveal a head of bright blue hair; contrasted brilliantly against the snow.

You almost gasped. But of course didn't actually. Obviously; that'd mean opening your mouth, which'd make it get all cold and that wouldn't do any good for your whole teeth-chattering situation.

You had the sudden urge to run downstairs, and for once you couldn't agree with yourself more. You made your way as fast as you could through the dorm halls and stairwells until you were in front of the glass double-doors that led outside, but stopped short as your feet crossed from the carpet of the hall onto the cold tile of the doorway.

In your hurry you'd completely forgotten that you were only wearing socks. You toyed with the idea of going back and leaving altogether. Because really, Lapis's problems were her own burden, and she could deal with them by herself. You had your own issues, and you didn't need to add hers to the list. Besides you'd probably be out there forever in the freezing cold feeding her meaningless phrases like "it's okay" and "you can get through this, I believe in you". Why shouldn't you just turn around now, and pretend you hadn't even seen her?

And the thing was, you _really did want to do just that_. But, then you'd be leaving Lapis alone in the cold. And for whatever reason, you felt your chest tug painfully at the thought of abandoning her and feigning ignorance later. It tugged you right out the door, right into the cold snow that immediately soaked through your thin socks and through your feet to the bone, until you started to regret coming out. But it continued tugging at you, forcing your feet to move at an almost run towards Lapis.

As you drew closer to the slumped figure, the more she began to take the shape of your roommate. She didn't notice your presence until you were only ten or so feet from her. Her head snapped up suddenly, surprising you into flinching.

Her bangs whipped across her face from the wind, so you couldn't see her eyes clearly, but even from there you could tell her mouth was contorted into a shape of sorrowful desperation. Ten steps later, she'd erased any trace of being upset, forcing her lips into a false smile. She brushed the hair from her eyes, but it just fluttered back into place before you'd had a chance to get a good look at them.

From the short glimpse you'd caught though, it'd looked like the corners were puffy. And you'd still been able to see dried tear streaks.

"Hey," she said, obviously trying very hard to keep her voice from cracking.

"Hey," you replied in an almost uninterested way, clearing off a thin layer of snow so you could sit beside her. You immediately drew your freezing feet up from the snow onto the bench, wrapping one arm around your knees.

The wind and snow swallowed up your words, and Lapis didn't offer any more to fill the space. You'd expected her to start talking to you about what was going on, to start blubbering and sobbing and making a huge fuss and seeking comfort from you and talking about how terrible her life was and that _she_ was terrible and all that. But it never came, not the tears or the choked sobs or the pitiful desperation. After a few minutes of prolonged silence, she'd made it abundantly clear that she wasn't even going to let on that she'd just been crying.

Sure, you would've been annoyed to the point of most probably physical pain if she'd thrown a fit about it, but you were even more uncomfortable when she wasn't saying anything; leaving it all on you to figure out what happened. How to talk to her, how to comfort her without feeding her those horrible clichéd lines she obviously didn't want right now.

You weren't good at this sort of thing. How were you supposed to help her, you didn't like consoling people for a reason.

"So...whatcha doing out here?" you said slowly, your breath puffing into small clouds of steam as you spoke. Lapis turned her head slightly away from you, clasping and unclasping her fingers in her lap, but not speaking.

"Hmm?" you asked, scooting closer to her and bending your head around into her self-made circle in an attempt to meet her eyes. She just shrank further in on herself, looking away more sharply this time.

When it became apparent that she wasn't going to do any talking anytime soon you backed away, slumping against the back of the bench with a humph as you crossed your arms loosely around your chest. "Fine, be that way. Sit out in the cold for all I care. Stay out here and cry. I hope you know the tears will freeze to your face.

"Just sit there and do nothing, but I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on," you added stubbornly, the last part of your sentence falling to a mumble.

That caused her to jolt, but it was still another five or so minutes before Lapis actually said anything.

"Peridot, are you really planning on staying out here dressed like that?" she asked in an unamused tone, giving a quick glance at your sweat pants and shirt paired with your soaked socks, "it's awfully cold out here."

"I'm fine," you managed, trying not to stutter through once again chattering teeth.

"Peridot, you just walked fifty feet in snow with nothing but socks on," her tone held a slightly amused note, but it still sounded forced.

"Well, I'm still not leaving until you tell me what you were j-just crying about," you grimaced as the words trembled.

"I wasn't crying," Lapis snapped, doing her best to give you a pointed look in her sorry state.

"S-sure looked like it to me," you said almost snidely, narrowing your eyes behind your glasses.

"I...well..." Lapis looked away, interweaving and undoing her fingers again. For a moment, you had the sudden urge to grab her hand for whatever reason.

"I...I don't want to talk about it. Just...Peridot, things happen, okay? Like...bad things, things with other people, and..." Lapis broke off, obviously desperately trying to keep herself from breaking down again. You gave her a few minutes to collect herself before she continued, taking in a sharp breath as she did so, "I, just...it doesn't matter. I'm fine."

More silence.

This wasn't Lapis. Weak and desperate and trying so hard to keep everything to herself. At least not the one you'd come to know. Your mind drifted back to when you'd first met her, how compliant and silent she'd been. Was that how Lapis normally acted around people?

"Lapis, that's not true." you snapped, dead serious. She turned her head at your sudden response, and you could see the tears swimming through her eyes, threatening to fall.

"It...It doesn't just stop mattering because I got here. And you obviously aren't _fine_ ," you said harshly. Not exactly in a mean way, but in a way that let her know just how stupid she was being about all of this. "And whatever the problem is, it isn't going to help if you keep it to yourself. Even _I'm_ socially aware enough to know that," you finished, your eyes darting to where your hands lay clenched on your knees at the last bit.

A pause. Suddenly you felt something surprisingly warm being pulled over your head. You reached a tentative hand up to find Lapis's beanie had been shoved so far on your head it almost covered your eyes. "You big nerd, you don't need to worry about me," Lapis said, a hint of amusement seeping through her voice. "Lapis-" you began, trying to keep her from diverting from the subject. "No really I'm fine now, honestly" she gave a weak attempt at a grin.

"But, uh..." she said, casting you a small glance. Tears had sprung at the corners of her eyes, but she still wore a small half smile, "thanks."

"Now," she said, looking away quickly, "Let's go inside. If you haven't gotten frost bite yet, it sure won't help staying out here. Seriously Peridot, socks? If you're going to come all the way out here for me, at least remember to put on shoes doofus. It's like twelve degrees."

You nodded, placing your feet gingerly on the snow figuring it was better to get the initial bite over with sooner than later. At the sudden cold daggers that sprang through your already frozen socks, a shiver broke through your body and your foot immediately shot back up onto the bench. "Augh, this was a _horrible_ idea," you spat. You let your leg fall, your foot dangling just barely out of reach of the snow.

"Jeez Peridot, you have absolutely no tolerance for the cold," Lapis said snidely.

"Like you're one to talk. You with your warm boots an-aaugh Lapis what are you doing?!" you spluttered in surprise as she hoisted you off the bench. She began carrying you, with only some minor difficulty, back to the dorms; one arm wrapped around your torso and the other supporting the crook of your knees. "What are you-" you began again.

"Shush. You helped me so now I have to return the favor. I don't want to have to owe you anything," She'd said it quietly, but you were pressed close enough against her you could hear her words even against the gathering wind. "Hmmph," you mumbled, folding your arms across your chest. On any other day you probably would've complained and squirmed until she'd let you go, but the snow _was_ really cold and you'd made the idiotic decision to walk through it without shoes.

Also, Lapis was surprisingly warm. You could already feel heat rushing to the side of your body pressed against her's, despite the layer of snow that dusted her navy blue sweater.

You were a bit surprised she was able to carry you at all. Though you were a bit scrawny, and she probably had a lot of upper body strength from swimming. As Lapis walked on, you found your gaze traveling more from what was in front of you to Lapis's face. It wasn't your fault if it was just more comfortable to keep your head straight instead of craning it all the time. And Lapis's head just happened to get in the way of your already set gaze. And she was going about ten times slower than usual, so of course you started to get bored and observing what was right in front of you. Though Lapis's face was oddly interesting; the weird way her jaw curved so that it was smooth until it reached the side of her head, where it was pushed forward slightly. And here eyes were another thing; the weird blue ones. At first you'd thought they were contacts but now you weren't so sure. You'd never seen her take them out, and now that you were only half a foot away you couldn't detect any traces of another eye color underneath the cyan.

You'd been so caught up in debating whether or not it was even possible for someone's eyes to be that blue, that you didn't notice that Lapis'd shouldered the door open until the two of you were already inside.

"Uh, Lapis you can put me down now," you said, looking over her shoulder at the door she'd just kicked shut, "We're inside. I can walk on my own."

You felt her shake her head, "No way, you probably got half frozen out there. The moment I set you down, your feet would shatter," she joked.

You almost protested, but then again you didn't exactly like the idea of having to walk across the cold floors either. Even though you were pretty sure your feet wouldn't actually shatter.

Even when you got to the first set of stairs, she refused to let you ascend by yourself. You grumbled, but didn't say anything. If you managed to get free she'd probably just pick you back up again and sling you over her shoulder, or drag you by your wrists or something. Whichever way, you much preferred this than another, more uncomfortable, alternative.

You heard rapid footsteps clambering down the stairs ahead, but before you had time to quickly shove Lapis off Pearl had rounded the corner. She paused, giving the two of you a quick glance before hurrying past; her face a noticeable shade darker.

You glared from behind Lapis's shoulder at her back as she disappeared, snarling "Shut up Pearl!" even though she hadn't really said anything.

You heard a snort of laughter from Lapis, causing you to promptly, if not a bit awkwardly elbow her in the ribs.

"Well if you're going to be like that," she mock-scoffed, "you can walk yourself." She dropped you almost carelessly, but nonetheless making sure you landed steadily on your feet. As soon as you'd stabilized yourself, Lapis shook her arms out before letting them drop to her sides.

The second you'd made contact with the rough stone stairs you instantly regretted endangering the assurance of a effort-free trip back. But Lapis didn't need to know that so you simply began climbing, turning back to urge her on condescendingly. She'd only smiled and shaken her head, but followed you nonetheless.

The floor was cold and hard and your feet really _did_ hurt (from the moment you'd gotten inside, the slightly warmer atmosphere had been pricking painfully at them). Stopping at the top of the second flight, you rubbed your left foot against your leg in an attempt to dispell some of the pain. Being careful not to let Lapis on to any discomfort you were feeling, you peeled off your wet socks and went the rest of the way back barefoot.

A painful trip down the hallway later, and you sat piled under not only yours, but also Lapis's blankets; tapping away on your laptop with stiff fingers. Your feet still hurt, and you honestly didn't think you were capable of feeling warmth again.

You detected a small clicking nose that sounded suspiciously like a thermostat, and within a few minutes your blanket cave had become too stuffy and the room warm enough to be safe.

"You...turned on the heat," you stated more than questioned.

Lapis nodded, "I thought it was getting kind of cold in here. I'm sure _you_ didn't mind it Peridot, but I don't think I could have beared it much longer.

"Well, good," you said slowly, nodding your head, "I mean, like you said it wasn't bothering me. But if you were really _that cold_ then I suppose I can deal with the heater."

You dragged your laptop out from under your blanket fort, as Lapis's light chuckles filled the room.

* * *

 **((A/N : sorry it took so long to update. School started, I got busy and all that. I'll probably start updating regularly again, but there may be two or two and half weeks between chapters))**


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